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Who Knew What When?

By Katharine Q. Seelye August 18, 2008 2:49 pmAugust 18, 2008 2:49 pm

It turns out that the Rev. Rick Warren gave both Senators Barack Obama and John McCain an advance look at some of the questions he posed to them on Saturday night at the Saddleback Church forum in California, according to church officials.

Senators John McCain and Barack Obama on Saturday with the Rev. Rick Warren. (Photos: Monica Almeida/The New York Times)

A spokesman for Mr. Warren, A. Larry Ross, said that Mr. Warren, founding pastor of Saddleback, had assured both candidates in advance that he was not going to play “gotcha” with them. He gave them some of the questions, Mr. Ross said, because he wanted to put them at ease and alleviate any concern that the forum would be a “Christian litmus-test” for president.
The Saddleback event was the closest the two candidates have come to a joint appearance since they became the presumptive nominees of their parties. They were interviewed separately — Mr. Obama first, by a coin toss — and were not on stage at the same time except for a brief handshake and hug between their interviews.

On Thursday night, Mr. Ross said, Mr. Warren told Mr. Obama three of the questions he would be asking: What is your greatest moral failing? What is America’s greatest moral failing? And who are the three people you rely on most for wise advice?

On Friday, Mr. Warren gave the same three questions to Mr. McCain.

Mr. Warren also told them the general categories of the questions, some of the broad themes and that he would also be asking about their tax policies.

In addition, Mr. Ross said, Mr. Warren later told Mr. Obama that he would be asking him another question: whether he would support the church’s emergency project for orphans.
When Mr. Warren did ask Mr. Obama about it during the forum, Mr. Obama noted: “I cheated a little bit. I actually looked at this idea ahead of time and I think it is a — I think it’s a great idea.”

Mr. Ross said Mr. Warren had hoped to tell Mr. McCain about the orphan project in advance but said he did not have time. But this is a well-trod subject for Mr. McCain. When Mr. Warren asked him about it during the forum, he answered by telling a story he tells all the time, that his wife, Cindy, adopted their youngest daughter from an orphanage in Bangladesh.

Mr. Warren did not share with his audience — of more than 2,200 in the church and millions watching and listening to the live television broadcasts, radio programs and streaming on the Internet — that he had alerted the candidates to any of the questions in advance.

But he did tell them that Mr. McCain was in a “cone of silence” while Mr. Obama was being interviewed, suggesting he would not have been able to hear any of the questions or answers. He referred to this cone twice, saying first that while he was interviewing Mr. Obama, “we have safely placed Senator McCain in a cone of silence.”

After Mr. Obama left and Mr. McCain sat down for his interview, Mr. Warren started by asking Mr. McCain, “Now, my first question: Was the cone of silence comfortable that you were in just now?”
Mr. McCain deadpanned, “I was trying to hear through the wall.”

But Mr. McCain was not in a “cone of silence.” His aides told The New York Times that he was in his motorcade, en route to the church, during the first half of Mr. Obama’s interview.

Some of Mr. Obama’s allies had found Mr. McCain’s performance surprisingly good and had suggested that he had received word of the questions and possibly Mr. Obama’s answers in advance.

“The insinuation from the Obama campaign that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, cheated is outrageous,” Nicolle Wallace, a spokeswoman for Mr. McCain, told The Times.

The McCain campaign also sent a statement to Saddleback, which Mr. Ross made available to The Times.

The McCain statement said: “The insinuation suggests that the Obama campaign is grasping at falsehoods. The facts are that Senator McCain was in a motorcade led by the United States Secret Service and held in a green room with no broadcast feed. Last night, Senator McCain demonstrated to the American people that he is prepared to be the next president. Senator McCain never heard or saw any of Senator Obama’s appearance.”

Mr. Ross said that Mr. Warren had used the phrase “cone of silence” in the metaphoric sense.
As for providing them some questions in advance, Mr. Ross said that having a church hold such a forum, particularly in advance of the presidential debates, was a new step in presidential politics and Mr. Warren wanted to make sure it went well.

“Pastor Rick saw his job as setting up the ball up at the net so the candidates could spike it,” Mr. Ross said. “He wanted to set them at ease.”

Mr. Warren is to appear live tonight on FOX’s Hannity at 9 p.m. and with Larry King on CNN at 9:15 p.m. ABC’s “Nightline” will be airing a taped segment about Saddleback at 11:35 p.m.

Q: Some Obama supporters are claiming that McCain saw the questions before the forum began, giving him a leg up on Obama.

Mr. Warren: They’re dead wrong. That’s just sour grapes. They both did fantastically well. The only question he knew, I gave them the first question and I was changing the questions within an hour [before the forum began.] I talked to both of them a week before the debate and told them all the themes. I talked personally to John McCain and I talked personally to Barack Obama. I said, ’We’ll talk about leadership, talk about the roles of government,’ I said I’d probably have a question about climate change, probably a question on the courts. I didn’t say, ‘I’m going to ask which Supreme Court justice would you not [nominate].’ They were clearly not prepared for that.

The blogosphere is also lighting up with questions about the story Mr. McCain told at the forum — and many times previously — about a moment when a guard in his prison camp in Hanoi etched a cross in the dirt in front of him on a Christmas day. Mr. McCain related the story movingly at the forum, almost choking up, and added a line that he had not used before publicly: “For a minute there, there was just two Christians, worshiping together.

But some in the blogosphere are noting that this scene is strikingly similar to one painted by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, writing about his days in the gulag, and are questioning whether it actually happened to Mr. McCain. Mark Nicholas, a Democrat from Montana, has this. And over at the liberal DailyKos, they are noting that conservatives at Free Republic first raised doubts about the story in 2005. McCain campaign’s Michael Goldfarb posts a response to the questions.

I don’t think it makes much difference whether the candidates knew the topics before the forum. Even if they didn’t know, it wouldn’t have been that hard to predict what would come up at a forum held at a church.

It sounds like the democrats are stepping up their attacks on McCain. They can’t claim to be the non-negative team now.

Is it just me – or was the spectre of the two candidates discussing their Christianity with “Pastor Rick” a tad nauseating – and more than a tad frightening?

And as for Pastor Rick himself – is he supposed to be some sort of “forward-thinker?” Virtually all of his “world view” questions had a real reactionary skew to them. And man – that dye job! I’ll tell you one thing, if I every make tens of millions like him, I ain’t going with the Bozo thing!

This is important news because it directly contradicts the impression that the public was given.

McCain has gotten a free pass on issues of character for practically the entire electoral season, while circumstances surrounding the end of his first marriage, his seven houses, the Keating 5 scandal, and the controversial lobbyists in his campaign go Un- or Under-reported.

I hope that the MSM wakes up and holds McCain to the same bar of scrutiny that it has held Obama to.

So let me get this straight. McCain was enroute to the hall, and never heard or saw Obama while he was on with Rev. Warren? I guess his campaign didn’t have associates, a script writer and a cell phone with which to communicate with him either.

For goodness sakes! As an Obama supporter, I can honestly say I don’t give a hoot one way or the other. I found McCain’s answers jumped between direct pandering, meandering stump stories and short-and-sweet responses that required an ideal world to be put into play. (Life begins at conception with no question? Say goodbye to abortion, certain types of contraception and a woman’s right to her own body. No taxes for anyone? Say goodbye to roads, schools, and a well-supplied military.) Whether he knew the questions or not is irrelevant. This forum did exactly what it should have – it showed the candidates incredibly diverse positions in a spotlight without a lot of the normal finger-pointing that both sides engage in. Bravo, Saddleback!

The headline of this article appears to try and diffuse the fact that John McCain was NOT in a cone of silence and whether he received or heard Obama and the questions in advance. This is only one part of the discussion.

Even if McCain did not hear, why did McCain allow the many thousands of views to beleive a lie?

An honest man, an honorable man, a man of scruples, would have told the audience the truth at the start of the show. Instead he knowingly allowed us to believe a lie.

An honest man, an honorable man, a man of scruples, would not have borrowed, stole, plagarized (?) the story of the cross in the dirt. The story was not about McCain, but about a Russian prisoner, Alexander Solzhenitsyn who was held in the Soviet gulags. And he tells this story in a church of God?

It doesn’t matter–besides, BO lost anyway. He thinks evil is Darfur and McCain knows it is bin Laden. BO should have said that evil is Jeremiah Wright, William Ayers, Hamas, etc. etc., but those are his friends, mentors, spiritual advisers. There is evil in Darfur, but that is not an American priority–John McCain’s experience proves that he looks at the big picture, and is not concerned about an African problem. Citizen of the World, oh brother.

I have enjoyed reading blogs for some time, but today is the first time I felt compelled to join the conversation.

I watched the forum and believe Obama’s answers were sincere and McCain’s were a version of his stump speech and lacking depth. Furthermore, contrary to popular belief, answering a question prior to any contemplation is not a sign of strength, but ignorance. Being rigid in your views is a weakness. That means you believe in the “my way or the highway” mantra which is a recipe for getting absolutely nothing done!

But I am more concerned by his dishonesty. There’s something called full disclosure, partial disclosure, and non-disclosure…Only the first one is the truth. When Pastor Rick asked John McCain, “How was the cone of silence?” and he did not tell the American people that he was not in fact in the cone for a full half an hour (or more), he boldly lied to the Pastor, and more importantly to the American people. He missed an opportunity to show us that he had the courage to be an honest citizen of the United States of America, and break from the politics of lying, cheating, and deceitfulness for one’s own political gain. If you recall, Obama was honest when he disclosed to the public that he had forewarning regarding the adoption question. That’s called integrity. Something that John McCain is clearly lacking.

When tensions begin to escalate in the world, will he leave out a few pertinent details regarding intelligence obtained to lead us into another military conflict? It is clear by the lack of attention to his confirmed lie by his own campaign’s admission that nobody in the media is going to ask the tough questions and get to the truth. If the media won’t ask the tough questions and find the truth regarding such a simple, straightforward demonstration of a candidate not telling the truth, it is clear when McCain wags the dog in the future, they will drop the ball again. I find this stark reality truly frightening. When will we as a nation final demand the truth!

Hey guys, Lyle’s back. Show the proof for that one! Obama had the questions first so McCain had to have them. “My Friends”, barf! Find the “Soviet Gulag” and you’ll find that the POW “cross story” is likely stolen as well. John Mc Cain=W.M.D. ! No not that one, but “Words of Mass Deception”. It keeps getting worse.

I saw one authentic human being providing thoughtful answers and one pandering empty suit that may as well have been reading his responses from an index card. Did you see McCains response to the marriage definition question – he almost came off script – you could see him mentally running through the memorized response. Deer in the headlights. It’s a shame to see that mccain has become such an empty suit – it’s a mighty big tumble from being the maverick. For mccains sake I sure hope he wins – he’s sacrificed his integrity, reputation and principles for this joke he calls a presidential campaign. I doubt he even remembers what he does and doesn’t stand for anymore. It’s a shame.

““The insinuation from the Obama campaign that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, cheated is outrageous,” Nicolle Wallace, a spokeswoman for Mr. McCain, told The Times.”

How does she get from former prisoner of war, to not cheating? Is that going to be their response for everything? “The insinuation that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, would raise taxes is outrageous!”

After I read this article, I was going to comment that regardless of whether the candidates knew the topics in advance, or whether Sen. McCain was in the “cone of silence”, the subject matter of this forum was entirely predictable. Then I read Kristen’s comment @2:58PM. I realized , like the forum questions, my comment was also entirely predictable. Clearly, Kristen did not somehow “telegraph” her comment to me in advance. By the way, in mentioning Meg Whitman as one of the wisest people he knows, was Sen. McCain tipping his hand on his VP choice?

Oh, baloney. It gets revealed that there was no ‘cone of silence’ as they claimed and McCain could have had access to Obama’s interview before he had to go on. So to cover for that lie the ‘church’ goes to this Fair and Balanced defense to try to throw people off the fact that this was a rigged event.

They asked McCain about the ‘silence’ he dealt with and he joked that he was putting his ear to the wall. He failed to mention that he wasn’t even in the building yet and so was NOT in isolation as they led people to believe.

Kudos to Obama for going there and trying to address these people with fairness and respect. Let’s hope some people in the so-called ‘religious right’ will have the wisdom to hear how reasonable he is in spite of the fact that the respect and fairness was not paid both ways.

I am absoluetly dumbfounded by the MSM’s inability to recall the classic show “Get Smart” and its constant – and hilarious – reference to the “cone of silence” (a gag prop that never worked correctly and yet Max always insisted it be used). Obviously, this was a metaphor. The point was that JSM couldn’t hear the questions. His actual location is completely inapposite. And the insinuation that JSM was “spying” on this debate is just absurd when one considers the costs/benefits of such action (i.e., he’d be skewered if he were ever discovered, yet gain only mondestly in the long-term – especially considering they had a few questions and topics beforehand).

Sounds to me like many in the MSM – and many BHO supporters – are simply unable to even entertain the idea that The One just laid an egg on Saturday night.

Who cares? Obama did very bad (‘thoughtful’ they say), but everybody knows that he is not good at this sort of debates and forums. He needs a stage to do the moves and a speech written by others that he can rehearse. The good laugh was he was beaten by a 70 years old man. This is what Democrats achieved by pushing this empty suit so far. What a shame.
I don’t like McCain and I barely followed his campaign, but he was a big surprise last Saturday. Obama just confirmed he is below standards.

Hilarious double standard that the left is trying to poke holes in a story that McCain relates about being a prisoner of war during the Vietnam war. They claim it is similar to another story about a Russian gulag prisoner. Thus, they have no proof that it isn’t true, just groundless speculation about similarities with the two stories. On the other hand, we have two whoppers that Obama told during the campaign about the Selma march and the JFK’s outreach to Africa. Both Obama stories have been proven categorically to be lies due to the the fact that the timing of both stories makes them impossible. The left has no shame.

McCain’s statement denies everything EXCEPT that his aides told him anything about the forum in progress. SO transparently dishonest. But with no follow-up inquiry, they’re getting away with dishonesty.

That said, it doesn’t matter if he heard or didn’t hear. What DOES MATTER is the PERCEPTION he perpetuated by arriving late.

In a race for the highest office in the land, there is a presumption of zealous competitiveness. If McCain thinks for one minute that voters believe his camp was less than zealous and NO advantage was sought in arriving late, he either has no respect for our intellect OR he doesn’t give a damn what we THINK. Either way, he’s NOT the leader we need.

Anyone who believes that McCain is a spiritual person, knows nothing about the subject himself. The purpose of this forum was to sell a product and like everything else about McCain, except his pride, it is there for marketing purposes only.

“The insinuation from the Obama campaign that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, cheated is outrageous.” This is clearly not a denial of the accusation; it is merely changing the subject. “How dare you say such a thing on this bright, sunny day?” This is pure political game-speak, a non-denial denial. No one has said McCain wasn’t told about the questions. He just didn’t “hear” or “see” the first part. Same old dirty tricks. Nixon, Bush, and McCain.

What is fascinating about the cross story is that while it is being widely discussed in the liberal blogosphere right now, the first group to notice the astonishing parallels to Solzhenitsyn were at the famously right wing blog (and Jerome Corsi former haunt) The Free Republic (here is a link//www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1538054/posts).

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